Laos inks $1.45 billion clean energy deal with Chinese firm to boost power capacity

Laos has signed a $1.45 billion clean energy deal with a Chinese power plant equipment manufacturer as the Southeast Asian country furthers its push into clean power generation and transmission.

China Western Power Industrial, along with a Singapore-based construction company, signed the agreement with Xekong Thermal Power Plant in Laos to design, supply, and build a 1,800-megawatt clean energy power project in southern Laos, according to a stock exchange filing by the Sichuan-based company on Monday.

Shares of the Shenzhen-listed firm jumped 9.9 per cent after the filing. So far this year, the stock has surged 46.3 per cent.

The project is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2030, with initial designs to be finished by the end of this year.

The filing did not provide details on the energy source of the project.

On the day, the Chinese company also signed a power transmission deal, valued at $228.8 million, with the same Laotian company.

In 2022, China Western Power signed a supply and service deal worth $409 million with another power company in Laos.

Last year, a Chinese state-owned power company signed an agreement with Laos to expand a wind and solar energy base in the north of the country.

Laos, a mountainous country, has produced about 80 per cent of its electricity from hydropower over the last decade but has struggled to scale up its solar and wind power.

Electricity exports, which also go to neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, have formed a key part of the development strategy of landlocked Laos, which has been dubbed the battery of Southeast Asia.